Man jailed for murdering fellow Goldsmiths student

An American student has been been jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years for murdering his on-and-off girlfriend in her south-east London home.

Joshua Michals, 26, stabbed fellow Goldsmiths University student Zhe Wang, 31, at her flat in Manor Park, Lewisham, in March 2024.

Creative writing student Wang suffered two stab wounds to the face and a post-mortem examination also revealed she had been strangled.

Michals told his Old Bailey trial that he had been acting in self-defence stemming from an argument about a sexually transmitted disease (STD).

Michals, who was found guilty of murder in December following the trial, was sentenced at the same court on Friday.

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Michals studied film-making at university before moving to London to pursue a year-long master's degree at Goldsmiths.

During the trial, prosecutor Henrietta Paget KC said Michals had "flown into a rage" and killed Wang after meeting her at her flat.

They had first met on the Goldsmiths campus and began an on-and-off casual relationship in 2023.

Michals told jurors he had felt "so-so" about pursuing a relationship with Wang because she had a phobia of germs.

After finding a "red dot" on her skin after the pair had sex, she demanded he get an STD test, the court previously heard.

Jurors were told Michals, of Deals Gateway, south-east London, never had a sexually transmitted disease.

The student said he went to her flat on 20 March 2024 with a charcuterie selection to bring some "normalcy" to the "bizarre situation".

He claimed that when he was at the flat in Lewisham, Wang attacked him with a knife.

Brian St Louis KC, mitigating, said: "He (Michals) expresses that he deeply regrets what happened to Miss Wang."

"That is an expression of remorse extremely late in the day, not expressed during the trial," Judge Richard Marks KC told the court.

Michals previously told jurors he did not mean to strike Wang with the knife, saying: "I just wanted to get her away from me."

He also said he pressed his forearm to her neck to try to restrain her and claimed he did not mean to kill her or cause her harm.

But Judge Marks said: "My conclusion is that you became enraged by the whole situation. In a fury you lost complete control of your temper and your senses."

The judge said Michals inflicted two serious wounds to Wang's face with one of her kitchen knives and that the second wound involved "a use of severe force".

"The proliferation of bleeding did not bring you to your senses... you used your forearm with considerable force to then throttle her," he said.

Michals called his father after the incident and got details of a solicitor before going to his own flat and calling 999, the trial heard.

In a victim impact statement from Wang's cousin Xiao Li Wang, read to the court by the prosecution, she said it was difficult to verbalise "the emotions and heartbreak of losing a close family member".

The relative, who observed proceedings via video link from China, said Wang's family thought it was a scam when they first received a call with the news that she had died.

"Nobody wanted to believe what we had been told, it felt like something you see in the movies," Wang's cousin said.

She added: "Zhe was so positive, hardworking, passionate about life and yet something so cruel had happened to her."

Judge Marks said that evidence showed Wang was "a hugely talented writer, a gentle and kindly young woman, private and sensitive and it would seem to me someone emotionally fragile".

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